First, I am going to offer an opportunity for you to complete a independent study unit on Organic Chemistry, which is Chapter 25 in your book. This will be a short, but complete unit on the chemistry of carbon. AP Chemistry is a course designed to be equivalent to an upper level college freshman chemistry course. Therefore, after the successful completion of freshman chemistry, a chemistry, biology, pre-med, or chemical engineering major would move on to a year long course in organic chemistry. The branch of organic chemistry in the chemistry tree is the largest. It is the chemistry that is the back-bone of the pharmaceutical industry, petroleum industry, and almost everything you buy without a prescription at the corner drugstore. Thousands of new chemicals are discovered every year and the vast majority of them are organic compounds. It is incredibly important, so a very minor amount of information known about it will be a benefit to you. This would help as you possibly move on to AP Biology, or get a 4 or 5 on the AP Chemistry exam and move right into organic chemistry in your first year of college, or most important for right now, see a couple of questions pertaining to organic chemistry on the AP Chemistry exam. I do not cover this material in class because it historically is a very minor part of the exam and there just is not enough time to cover everything during the course, but also enough of the exam that it could be the difference for some to passing the exam or moving to the 4 and 5 region of the exam.
THIS INDEPENDENT STUDY UNIT IS OPTIONAL AND NOT REQUIRED FOR THE COURSE. IT IS DESIGNED TO BE AN ENRICHMENT TO THE COURSE AND A VERY MINOR PORTION OF THE AP CHEMISTRY EXAM.
The unit will consist of you reading the chapter and studying the Chapter 25 Power Point that is available on the class Events Calendar, completing a practice test, and then finally completing a written take home quiz that will turned into me at the beginning of class Monday, November 29th, 2010. This take home quiz will be 20 questions. This is an opportunity for you to add a really good score to your assessment grade. It will be open book, open note, open internet, and open study buddy if you choose. I would suggest that everyone who wants to improve his or her grade take this opportunity and also those that are really serious about scoring well on the AP Chemistry test. The test is the only part of this independent unit of study that will be graded.
- The Chapter 25 Power Point can be found on the Events Calendar of my AP Chemistry web-page under the date of Sunday, November 21st, 2010. I have eliminated about 1/3 of the chapter from the Power Point. The independent study will focus on the classifying and naming of organic compounds and certain functional groups. Also, molecular geometry, bond angles, and hybridization that was learned in the previous unit will be applied to organic molecules.
- The Chapter 25 practice exam will be a .pdf file found on the Events Calendar under the date Monday, November 22nd, 2010. The practice test consists of 32 questions. For each question, page numbers in the book have been given to guide you to the area in the book that you will need to read and study to answer the question.
- A VODCast of all of the solutions to the practice test will be posted to the Events Calendar under the date of Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010. It will be more than just answers. I will use the practice test as an opportunity to teach a deeper understanding of the concepts associated with each question.
- On Wednesday, November 24th, 2010, the actual take home quiz will be posted on the Events Calendar as a .pdf file. You will need to print the quiz and complete it and be ready to turn in at the beginning of class, Monday, November 29th, 2010.
Below are links to four video resources that I found on the web that could be of use to you as you complete this independent unit of study.
- A VODCast/Power Point from Professor Chuck Wight of The University of Utah. This was designed for a first year chemistry course (like AP Chemistry) at UU, so it fits our needs quite well. Please keep in mind that the take home quiz will focus on material covered in the practice test, so some of what is presented you will not be held accountable for. Prof. Wight covers many functional groups that I will not be focussing on. The functional groups that I will hold you accountable for are alcohols, amines, halogens, and carboxylic acids. These four and all of the other functional groups can be found on page 1071 of your book. This YouTube video has a running time of almost eight minutes.
- The second VODCast that you can watch covers specifically how to name organic compounds. The naming system is governed by an international organization called IUPAC. You may see this acronym as you read the chapter or look on the internet. The acronym stands for International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. This YouTube video has a running time of just over nine minutes.
- The third internet resource that you can watch is a fairly humorous and catchy tune about naming organic compounds. There is a video accompanying the song. It is a good source to really condense many of the naming concepts for organic compounds. This YouTube video has a running time of two minutes and forty seconds.
- The fourth internet resource that I have to offer is a very short video that shows the resonance structure creation of an organic compound benzene. It does a very good job of illustrating the overlap of un-hybridized "p" orbitals to form the "pi" portion of a double covalent bond. You will read quite a bit about benzene and the delocalized bonds within the molecule. This video, I hope, gives you a better understanding of that concept.
- The fifth internet resource is a silly little video and song about benzene. Watch and get a little in-depth information about a very common substance found in industry.
Finally, you will have a true extra credit opportunity this week. You will be asked to download and use a molecular modeling software called Jmol. Use the link on Jmol to go to the site and download the software now if you want. I will have a VODCast available either Wednesday or Thursday of this week on how to install and use the software. Look back to the blog later this week on specifics of what you need to do to earn the extra credit.
I will be checking my school email periodically over the break, so email me if you have any questions. Also, you do have my cell phone number, so please feel free to call if you need any assistance.
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